Oscar Zeta Acosta is a controversial Chicano author whose work focuses upon ethnicity and the ways that people of Mexican ancestry in the United States forge an awareness of themselves. His books evoke an extremely volatile period of United States history, the 1960s and early 1970s, when issues such as civil unrest, the Vietnam War, and social reform captured the attention of many artists and intellectuals. He was a lawyer as well as a writer, and he defended different groups of Chicano political activists during acrimonious and bitterly contested trials. His writing drew upon iconoclastic sources including Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller, and gonzo journalism and helped establish a polemical style of Chicano prose. Acosta constantly reminded readers of his intention to shock and engage them with his choice of subject and language as well as his sense of humor. Acosta often characterized writing as insurrection against the status...